Working from Home (WFH) can take on a whole new meaning when one of your staff members decides to return home 17,000 kilometres away from the office.
Miriam Knox joined Wrights as an Account Coordinator early last year. Miriam grew into the job and became popular with Wrights staff and our clients. She was promoted to Account Executive and took on increased responsibilities.
When she decided to return to her home near London, we had a decision to make. Could WFH still be effective with a nine-hour time difference? The distance didn’t really matter because none of us has been to the office or met as a group since March 18. And, we won’t be getting together again until July at the earliest.
So, we made the decision to give it a go. At a time where many facets of daily life are uncertain, the quality of our service to clients becomes a greater priority. All of Miriam’s hard work in the past meant they wanted her to stay involved with their businesses, regardless of location.
Wrights Returns to the UK
Now, for all intents and purposes, Wrights has a UK office again, for the first time since 1996/97, when we opened an office in the West End of London to service Shell International and its partnership with Ferrari in Formula 1.
All the clients on which Miriam works have international affiliations and their staff are accustomed to working on an international timetable, so in some ways, the move has been beneficial.
On a normal working day, we have an all-in work in progress Zoom meeting at 1600 Melbourne time (0700 London time) and go through our workload. There is then a comfortable two to three-hour window where working together is easy; Miriam can carry on as the rest of the team downs tools for the day.
Just one week into the new set-up and it appears to be working well; almost seamlessly.
This new WFH regime makes it entirely feasible to employ talented people anywhere in the world and offers vibrant consultancies like Wrights the opportunity to cherry-pick the best consultants, designers and digital experts. Our new website, for example, was created in India and our IT team is now located near a beach in south-eastern Victoria.
We are all becoming used to new working dynamics and this internationalisation of a small, specialised consultancy opens up opportunities for our staff, our clients and for the business to expand its horizons without leaving home.
Thanks to Miriam, our fantastic staff and our understanding and adventurous clients, Wrights is once again considering expanding its services beyond Australia.
